Saan

I ran into Saan. Well, I ran around Saan. Well, I ran in front of Saan. I was running around the track at Franklin High School and saw a guy jump the fence from the convenience store with a paper-bagged can in his hand. As I continued to do laps, I thought I saw a man under some bushes...it was the same guy. After my workout I went and talked to him.

He had recently gotten out of jail, and was loathe to return to his family or friends for fear that he would get mixed up with the wrong crowd again. He had lost his mother and brother in the last year. His wife left him for his best friend. He had gotten beaten with a baseball bat at a nearby bus stop and was just out of Harborview Hospital's trauma center. A man in the store helped him buy a beer, and he was sitting under the bushes in the rain watching me run.

Before jail, Saan had lived for at least 6 months at the Laotian Temple down the street on Martin Luther King Jr Way, but his "master" had died and the new "master" didn't get on well with Saan.

I gave him my card and invited him to come stay with us at Seattle's Union Gospel Mission. I learned that he was Lao and that his name was Saan. I went back later and he was gone...I never found out what happened to him. Thanks for your prayers for this gentleman.